By Ryan Jones
Apr 11, 2006
The Palestinian Arabs want Israel to leave all of Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's intention to unilaterally set borders that do not meet that demand rather than capitulate through negotiations will be met by further belligerence, warned PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas at the weekend.
Speaking to London's Guardian, Abbas predicted Olmert's "convergence" plan will bring Israel only a temporary respite from all-out Islamic terrorist warfare directed at its Jewish citizens:
"The Israelis say: 'OK, we'll impose a unilateral solution' - which means that they will postpone, delay, the struggle and they will not solve the problem. OK, they can postpone it for 10 years. After 10 years our sons will feel it is unfair and they will return back to struggle. ...Nobody will accept it. The struggle will continue."
Abbas attempted to give the impression Israel is abandoning bilateral negotiations in a vacuum, ignoring the decade-long failure of his Palestinian Authority to honor even its most basic commitment - to disarm and dismantle those groups engaged in terrorist violence against Israel. Instead, Abbas and his predecessor Yasser Arafat defended and even sanctioned (and Arafat actually arranged) such aggression as a natural reaction to Israel's "occupation" and defense tactics.
And now the general Palestinian Arab public has overwhelmingly elected a group unswervingly dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish state to lead them.
Most Israelis are waking up to the fact there is little reason to view the "Palestinians" or their leadership as credible peace partners, or to hope that two-way talks with them will lead to a desirable outcome.
Still, many in Israel agree with Abbas that Olmert's planned withdrawal is not the solution. The convergence plan will effectively hand the "Palestinians" 90 percent of what they are demanding without Israel receiving anything in return, encouraging groups such as Hamas and their supporters to continue blowing up Jews as they wait to receive the rest.
Further confirming he cannot deliver the hoped-for goods with his stated policies, Olmert admitted in an interview with Time Magazine earlier this week that the borders he intends to draw by 2010 will likely not be Israel's final boundaries as promised in his election campaign.
The borders "will be very very close to what may be the final borderlines... the lines I want to draw are very close to the lines that I believe will become the political borders."
They will be nothing of the sort without international backing, which will hinge on "Palestinian" consent that Abbas insists will never be forthcoming.
And so, between Olmert and Abbas, Israelis are left with little to hope for but a continuation of Arab efforts to murder their people, a loss of any serious negotiating leverage should bilateral negotiations ever become a reality, and further erosion of their claim to the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria.